Forever Gone
by shebolebolee
Summary: Life without Max is hard on everyone, especially Fang. This is the story about how everyone deals with her death. Sequel to Finding Hope. Sorry for the long wait!
1. An Option As Good As Any

_Okay, I know I made a bunch of you peoples mad when I discontinued what I'm now referring to as my first draft of my sequel. Well, I straightened out my ideas, and now I'm ready to start it. Trust me, this time, it will be the most exciting thing you've ever read. I hope…_

_**Just so the story is covered…DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Max Ride, Fang, or any other thing that is not mine. Yadda, yadda, blah blah blah. You get the point. **_

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_I looked down, ashamed that I couldn't remember. I knew I should, but I couldn't. He cupped my chin and lifted my face to his._

"_Try. Please. For me. For them." He whispered. The pain in his voice broke my heart. I wanted to remember, but I couldn't. _

_One single tear fell rolled down my cheek, shimmering in the moonlight. _

_His eyes were full of anger. At _them_. At me. _

_And then he pulled me close to him, hard, and his lips met mine. His anger was in the kiss, and the way his lips moved was familiar and welcoming. He pulled away and looked at me, holding his breath._

"_I—I….I remember."_

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-Fang's POV-

Life without Max could have never been more different than life with her. When she was here, with us, it was always happy, even if something bad had just happened. She could always find a way to make us all feel at least a little better. She made us feel at home, because we knew that she always had a plan, even if it didn't seem like it.

And life without her is…empty. Alone. Depressing. There is no plan. There isn't any joy, or laughter anymore.

There is no Max anymore.

For the past two weeks, life has sucked.

After we got back, and the house was fixed, nothing happened. Nudge stopped talking. Iggy needed help finding things, and he burnt things more often than not. Gazzy never smiled. Angels curls deflated, lost their happiness, and she didn't bother playing with anyone, or really even talking. Dr. Martinez and Ella cried a lot. Total acted like a normal dog. He seemed to have lost the will to talk or eat at the table.

Jeb left. He moved away. Abandoned us again.

And me? I locked myself in my room. I ate meals at midnight or later, when nobody was around. They tried to talk to me, but I locked my door and ignored them.

They told me that everyone was hurting, that they all felt like I did.

But they don't. They can't possibly understand. I loved her, and she died. For me. For the flock, her mom, and her sister.

I talked even less than I had at our house in Colorado. Which was basically being mute.

I cried myself silently to sleep every night, when I could sleep, that is. And when I slept, I had nightmares about how she died.

It always began the same way. In the room with the glass wall separating us. I shouted and banged on the glass, screaming at her to stop, to come back, to let me go instead. Then various things would happen. Either they would shoot her in front of us, blood everywhere, or they would lead her away through that door, and her screams of terror and anguish would carry back to me.

Or they would make me kill her. That nightmare was always the worst. I was a robot it seemed. They would hand me the knife, and I would stab her, in the stomach. She never died right away. She would cry and beg and ask me why I was doing this to her.

And then I would wake up, screaming into my pillow, sweating all over, and sobbing my eyes out.

Two weeks later, after she died, that night was the worst ever. I woke up, grabbing fistfuls of the sheets on my bed, and I felt alone. I didn't understand why I should be living while she wasn't.

I hopped off the bed, anger overtaking me, and I ran out of my room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

I yanked open the drawer and pulled it out.

I was breathing heavily, even though the short run hadn't winded me at all. I put the blade to my left wrist, gritting my teeth.

It would start like this, with my arms, until I slowly bled out. I didn't want to die quickly, because I knew that they kept her alive as long as possible.

I pulled it down, right over my vein.

I let out a strangled cry. The pain made black dots dance in my vision, but I shook my head, clearing my mind.

Another yank, more pain, but I was silent this time.

And then a yell that wasn't mine.

"Fang! What the hell are you doing?!" Iggy's voice from somewhere behind me. I snapped out of it.

"Didn't wan' to…be here… she's gone…can't…." I babbled mostly to myself.

Iggy snatched the knife away from me.

"How did you…." I started to ask a question, but the words wouldn't come.

"This kitchen is completely white for one thing. And I could smell the blood." He explained, sitting me in a chair, pressing a towel to my arms.

Everything was fuzzy. I couldn't really see anything.

"Fang, stay here, and _don't move_ while I go get Dr. M." Iggy said, and I listened to his retreating footsteps.

But I was out before he even got up the stairs.

Maybe death would come to me, though quickly. I hoped I would see her if I died…

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_I know that was depressing, but these things needed to happen. It was rushed, but the second chapter will be better! _

_Hope you enjoyed, and maybe even cried a little! (kidding!)_

_R&R! _


	2. New Girl

_Sorry for not updating! I've been really super busy every single day since, like, August, and haven't gotten around to it. Well, here's the second chapter! Hope you like it! By the way, just a refresher, this is post-MAX, and I'm thinking about adding a little of the sixth book in there. Maybe. _

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"_Fang! Don't! Just—Just wait, okay? I have to—they need me—" I couldn't get the words out. _

"_Promise. Promise me they won't hurt you." His eyes were full of hate. I knew that it had killed him inside, that first time. But they kept calling me back, and I had to go. If I didn't they wouldn't keep their promise._

"_Listen, I—I won't let anything happen to her, okay?" His words reassured me._

"_Even though you don't love me anymore, I still love you." Fang whispered before he took off. _

_My heart ripped to pieces. _

"_Fang—" But it was too late. He was gone, maybe forever. _

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-Iggy POV-

This was the worst I'd ever felt. Sure, it'd sucked when I found my parents, but they wanted the fame, not me. But with Max gone, it was silent all the time. It was a thousand times worse than my phony parents.

And now the incident with Fang. _Cutting himself_? What had he been thinking? Did he think that we no longer needed him? He'd been Max's second-in-command. Now he was our leader, and we needed him more than ever.

He was always in his room, always crying himself to sleep when he thought we couldn't hear. But the new silence ensured that everything was heard.

We were all slowly breaking apart, and it was obvious. At school, people were avoiding us. There were rumors that our 'sister' had killed herself, or had been murdered by some guy hat had followed us here.

Fang didn't even go to school anymore. He left with us in the mornings to keep up the pretense for Dr. M, and came back when we did. But, since his 'accident' he didn't have to worry about it.

"Iggy? Are you okay?" Ella asked me on the bus. We'd been riding the bus so Dr. M wouldn't have to worry about taking us. We all liked it better this way.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just—" I sighed, but smiled.

"Just what?" Nudge asked, voice coming up from over the seat in front of us.

"Nothing. I'm fine, seriously." I insisted.

In a weird way, I _was _fine. Somehow, Fang being stuck at home and in bed made me worry less.

As the bus stopped at the school, a murmur went through it.

"Who's _ that?_" some guy whispered behind me. Another guy wolf-whistled.

"What's going on?"I demanded.

"Some new girl." Nudge whispered. "She's really tall, with super short black hair, red tips, black skinny jeans, and a_ really _tight shirt. That's disgusting." I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. She mumbled something about wanting red tips, even though the girl's shirt was too tight.

"She sounds…amazing." I whispered.

Ella and Nudge both punched my arm. "Ow." I mumbled, putting the details of the girl together, not even caring that they'd punched me.

"Down boy. She's taken." A voice said behind me.

"How do you know?" Ella asked, tone practically snooty.

"She's my cousin. Her name is Sarah. And her boyfriend lives in Nevada, and his name is Nick." I almost laughed. Nick. That was Fang's cover name.

"By the way, my name's Robert. We just moved here last week."

"Uh….huh. And why didn't she ride the bus?" Nudge asked.

"I dunno. Didn't want to, I guess." He was silent for a moment, and I got impatient.

"Damn. You two are tall." He said, probably meaning me and Nudge.

"Yeah, well, we get that a lot." I snapped. I didn't like this guy. He sounded too…cocky.

"So is Sarah. If she weren't my cousin, I'd say you guys were related." That sentence was…odd.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked slowly.

"Well, she kinda just showed up about a week and a half ago. My mom let her in. After all, she and Uncle Mo are brother and sister." He seemed to be questioning the story himself, but let it drop.

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All day, I really wanted to see the new girl, and had people continually describe her for me. No matter who described her, one thing kept coming up, and that was that she was constantly wearing these Aviator sunglasses. I thought it was cool, but most people thought it was odd.

And on the bus that afternoon, she sat right in front of me and Nudge.

I was itching to talk to her, hoping she could bring some normalcy to my sucky life, and then nudge gasped.

"Your eyes, they—they look just like my sister's did!" she said, pain obvious in her voice.

"Oh really? What's her name?" the girl asked. Her voice sounded familiar, like someone I used to know…

In fact, it sounded kinda like Max's voice.

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_Hope you liked it! Reviews are always amazing, and tell me what you think of all of it so far!_


	3. Depression

_Quick update: My older brother is in the United States Army and is currently in basic training, and was supposed to graduate Thursday, but didn't pass his PT, which is basically seeing how many pushups, sit-ups, etcetera he can do, and he didn't pass by _**two **_sit-ups. _

_So, we're all sad because he might not be able to come home for Christmas, but then we learned, unless we're told otherwise, he has a second chance to graduate…so yay! _

_Anyways, that's just what's going on with me. _

_To get this straight—The story tidbits at the beginning in italics are like a different character's POV. Only I know who it is. Then, after that, it'll almost always be Iggy or Fang. Okay?_

_Thanks for the reviews and Merry Christmas! And, just do you guys know, this is not going to be a depressing chapter. Fang's feeling much better. : ) _

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_I pressed my forehead to the wall and sighed. This felt...right. It was home._

_I heard a small thump from right in front of my head, on the other side of the wall. I froze, holding my breath. I'd forgotten that other people were currently living here._

_A single tear slipped down my cheek. _

_I caught it on my finger and stared at it as it shimmered in the moonlight._

_Why was I crying? This was just a place to stay for a little while. I had watched the windows to this room for days on end, and nobody ever came in this room. And when I'd tried the door when the family was gone, it had been locked, from the inside. _

_So, they didn't come in, and kept it locked, thus making it unused._

_I walked over to the window and tripped over something, making a huge racket._

_I cursed under my breath. Now they definitely knew I was here. I started to climb out the window when a familiar voice stopped me. I didn't know who the voice belonged to, but I knew it somehow._

"_Hello?" he said, outside of the door._

_I didn't answer and hurried to leave._

_I wasn't ever going back there again._

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-Fang POV-

Cutting myself. What a stupid and irresponsible idea. It had been two weeks, and my arms were completely better, but Dr. M kept me home from school just in case.

Iggy ranted and raved about some hot new girl at school he _couldn't see_ and told me I should actually start coming to school again. I usually rolled my eyes and told him I'd never have a crush again, and then he'd roll his eyes and tell _me _to shut up.

It was a never ending cycle.

"Feeling better, Fang?" Ella asked, no doubt on a secret mission to check on me for Dr. M.

"Your words have a double meaning. And to both, yes, I do. I think…It helped me in some weird way." I said, speaking more than ever had recently.

"Ah. Then get up. Time for school. Mom's driving us, cause I told her you'd been ditching." I threw a pillow at her, smacking her in the face.

She just giggled and skipped off.

I got up, got dressed, and dusted off my much mistreated school supplies.

I was so surprised at my own lack of depression, I ran into the door on the way out of my room.

I promptly began laughing hysterically at myself, making everyone rush up the stairs to see what was going on. They stopped dead, surprised to see me rolling on the floor, clutching my stomach.

"Uh…Fang?" Iggy managed to say.

"I…ran…into…the…door!" I said between gasps of laughter.

Iggy started to laugh with me and soon every joined in.

"Glad you're feeling better. But we should go before we're late." Dr. M said, grinning.

I was glad, too. Sure, I was still broken inside, I always would be, but hurting myself had shown me a new light to things.

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At school, Nudge made no hesitation pointing out the new girl, Sarah, to me.

They'd been right; she did have Max's eyes. Or, at least, something close to them. The sight sent painful twangs through me.

The day was boring. Extremely boring.

As a matter of fact, I'd would rather have been all depressed and skipping than at school. I let Iggy explain everything to all of the teachers, just because he was a fantastic liar.

That day passed uneventful, as did the next two weeks.

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The day Iggy brought Sarah home was the day that changed everything. I had stayed home that day, mostly because I'd wanted to, and I looked up from the couch, completely surprised to see Iggy and Sarah giggling together, hair windblown. And it wasn't windy outside.

"Uh…Iggy? Did you guys play with a hairdryer?" I asked slowly.

"Nope." He said, popping the _p_.

"Then…what?" I asked, hoping he hadn't done what I thought he'd done.

"I took her for a fly."

I jumped up with amazing speed and hit him right in the nose, hard.

"Ow! What the hell, Fang?" he said, lunging at me.

He caught me in the stomach, and I used his momentum to knock him off his feet.

"Why the hell would you do something so _stupid_? You told her?" I yelled down at him.

"Yeah, we can trust her!" he shouted back, holding his nose.

"How do you know that?" I asked, making another move to hit him.

"Guys! GUYS!" Sarah screamed.

We both stopped and looked at her.

"Okay, he might've made a stupid mistake, yeah, but you can trust me. I swear, I would never tell anyone. You guys seem pretty fly." She paused, and then giggled. "No pun intended."

And that's what happened.

We learned to trust Sarah, and she became one of us. And that was where we were wrong.

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_DUNDUN DUN! Cliffy! Oh well. I'll be getting a new laptop for Christmas, so I promise updates will be faster after that!_

_R&R ness ness ness?_


	4. AUTHOR'S NOTE! MUY IMPORTANTE!

Oh wow. I'm super duper sorry, you guys. You've all been waiting for…what? Two years?

I didn't get a laptop that Christmas. Just an iPod Touch. (But it's my new best friend…Well, it isn't so new now…)

I'm going to have to discontinue these stories though.

Sorry!

Here: Sarah is Max brought back, but with no memories. She's pretty much the enemy of the flock, until Fang figures it all out and helps her get her memories back. She, of course, isn't sure what to do, seeing as she loves Fang, but still works against them.

Anywho, in the end, it's all happy.

If you want any other details, PM me.

ALSO!

I will be writing a Harry Potter fanfic pretty soon. I can't wait :)

If you want details on THAT, PM me.

Can't you tell I really like hearing from you people?

Again, sorry for the SUPER long wait only to disappoint you….

More fans do make me happy though, so tell your friends about me.

Goodbye, for now. :)


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